Published: Thursday, September 27, 2012 at 7:39 a.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, September 27, 2012 at 10:48 a.m.

Two adults — a man and woman living in separate apartments — died in a Grand Isle fire Wednesday night, authorities said.

Firefighters found Willow Creek Apartments, 2727 La. 1, burning when they arrived about 9:30 p.m., the state fire marshal said.

No one else was injured, and between 15 and 20 people evacuated the apartment building, Grand Isle Fire Chief Aubrey Chaisson said.

When Chiasson's fire truck arrived and people alerted him that two people were inside, it sent “chills down my back,” he said. Looking over the shoulder of the woman talking to him, he could see the two apartments she was referring to “fully engulfed in flames.”

The adults, who lived in separate apartments, had lived in Grand Isle a while, Chiasson said. Authorities know their identities but have not yet released their names because they were having difficulty notifying their families.

Firefighters contained the fire to the second floor, the Fire Marshal's Office says in a news release.

“We saved the building,” Chiasson said. Flames only got to three apartments.

Still, the fire was “intense,” he said.

There were “25- to 30-foot flames shooting in the air. ... This thing was burning,” he said.

Firefighters could not enter the engulfed apartments from outside, Chiasson said. They had to go cut through interior walls to reach the dead.

Investigators from multiple agencies were working this morning to pinpoint the cause of the fire, Chiasson said, but foul play is not suspected.

The building was old, and tenants had complained in the past that fire extinguishers and smoke detectors were not working, Chiasson said.

Staff Writer Katie Urbaszewski can be reached at 448-7617 or Katie.urbaszewski@dailycomet.com.

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